Desperate for Approval novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: What Gerlaine Said

Grandma said she would see him at the door and nowhere else.

She said it at the kitchen table on Saturday morning, with her tea going cold, and she did not ask my opinion.

"He can stand in the hall. I'll stand in the doorway. He doesn't get a chair in this house."

"It's an apartment, Grandma."

"It's my door," she said. "I'll decide what it is."

At ten the buzzer sounded.

I let him up, and I waited in the kitchen behind her, where I could see.

The elevator opened down the hall, and Dad walked out of it slowly.

He wore an old jacket I had never seen, and he carried a mesh bag of oranges in one hand.

He stopped three steps from the door.

Grandma stood in the frame, one hand on the post and the other on her cane.

She had put on her plum dress.

"Gerlaine."

"Dale."

He held out the oranges.

"I brought these. For the table."

Grandma looked at the bag, and I watched her know it.

"Oranges," she said. "Every New Year's Eve, on the porch. One bag. You never came past the steps."

"I was busy."

"You were afraid I'd ask a question."

He lowered the bag and held it against his leg.

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